“One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.”
-Lucius Annaeus Seneca
A few weeks ago, I finished watching all the episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series. Just as Nightmaren had suggested I would, I really enjoyed it. After I had finished the original series, I started watching Star Trek: The Next Generation for a few episodes. The crew felt completely different in contrast to Kirk’s. It was only a few days ago when I had finished watching the second Star Trek movie, The Wrath of Khan, that I truly realized what it was that made me love Kirk’s legacy so much more. It was the bond that they shared.
As some of you know, I love Little Busters! with all my heart. I’ve come to love every single character and the memories that they shared together. When I played Persona 4, I found myself in a familiar situation when I began to know every single character. The more I got to learn about them, the more attached I got to each of them. That’s when I realized that there was a pattern. I loved Kirk’s legacy because I felt that exact affection towards him and all of his crew. I got to know just how human every character was. I got to know each crew member’s flaws, dreams, comical side, and just about everything else.
You see, Kirk’s crew was that of a very dynamic one meaning that they all had such unique relationships with each other (noticeably McCoy and Spock’s witty insults towards each other). All of these characters were fleshed out to be so… human. “Action speaks louder than words.” You could see the bonds between everyone and the captain throughout the series. You didn’t need it to be spelled out for you because you could just feel how much they respected Captain Kirk and how much they cared for him as a beloved friend.
These bonds are rare and difficult to find. It’s not something that’s easily obtainable, but rather something that is worked upon over days, months, and years. The third and fourth Persona games illustrates this concept very well through its Social Link feature. You have to continuously work your way up to becoming close friends with each individual through that social link function. Humans are social creatures, but they are fragile too. Thus there will always be walls and masks that people must see past in order to truly know someone. It is only until all those masks and those walls are cast down when you can truly call each other friends.
Growing up, I used to go through several “best friends”. This is because I used to move frequently; however with the growth of the internet, it has become possible to keep in touch with your friends and perhaps even make new ones through that outlet. While it is rather unfortunate that I still have not been able to keep in contact with the friends that I’ve made over the years, I still have a few that I continue to chat and share my life with.
A few nights ago, I attempted to pull an all-nighter with a couple of my friends. We played a long game of Garry’s Mod (Prop Hunt, specifically). It was surprisingly a refreshing break from all the work that I’ve had to do for the past couple of months. It also reminded me of just how comfortable I was with the two that I had played with. Both of them I got to know virtually; one of them lived near me while the other lived in a different state. While the time that I’ve gotten to know both of them may appear to be a small number of years, the bond that I share with these two is something that is unmeasurable by time.
The friends that I spend more of my time chatting with can be used as a contrast to the vast number of other people that I’ve gotten to know. On the social website Facebook, you list them all as friends. It’s not to say that it’s incorrect; however I beg to challenge the term as inaccurate. Out of the 200+ friends that I have added on Facebook, perhaps less than 10 of them are people that I can honestly call my friends. Everyone else are people that I met and have become acquaintances with. There’s nothing really special between those people and I other than the fact that we met and we got to know each other just a little.
I’ve expressed my opinions on friendship numerous times before, however I believe it is imperative that I remind you all how I feel about it. I always found friendship a bit synonymous with love. It’s not the romantic kind of love, but rather the love you feel for family members and close friends. There’s a certain kind of affection that you have for the people you truly enjoy having around for company. The kind of affection that if anything were to happen to them, you empathize with them and you stay with them. You fall with them, you struggle with them, you rise with them. You are there in their time of need just as much as you are there for them any other time.
“Friends show their love in times of trouble, not in happiness.”
-Euripides
This is the the kind of relationship that I always end up seeking for. A friendship where bonds can be made. There are times where I feel the investment is one sided, however there are others where I can see the investment has paid off. Perhaps I myself am far too sentimental on this subject, but I truly believe that it is important to find some sort of companion that you can share your life with. After all, life is not meant to be done alone.
This harmonious bond is ultimately the one thing I will always value the most. That is why I love Little Busters. That is why I love Persona 4. That is why I love Star Trek: The Original Series. You can see the bonds between each character. That unshakeable, undeniable bond that connects everyone. To be honest, I’m a little frustrated. I feel as though I’m not able to properly portray how I feel about this subject. It is difficult to express something that is abstract, after all. I even feel that perhaps verbally speaking my thoughts in regards to this will not do it justice. The only way I believe that this can be expressed is through the examples I’ve provided throughout this post: Little Busters, Persona 4, and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
I implore you, please play/watch the examples I’ve provided. If you care about this as much as I do, then you’ll enjoy them just as much as (or perhaps even more than) I did. I am at least fortunate enough to know that I have found a few friends where I do share this kind of bond. To those friends that I mentioned, thank you for being with me and continuing to share your life with me as I have with you.
-A small extra to the post-
[spoiler]For those of you who have played and finished Little Busters!, this AMV/MAD portrays just about everything that I love about Little Busters.